For All The Ramblings No One Will Listen To.

Verizon Really Grinds My Gears

I have to admit, I cycled through a lot of titles for this post that were far more… colorful, but in the end I decided to try and keep it classy.

What am I pissed about this time? Two words: GalaxyNexus. More to the point, where the hell is it?! There have been morethanafewrumors flying around, enough to the point where lot’s of the fanboys I know waiting for this blasted phone (myself included), are getting burned out. The newestbatch, pointing to December 8th or 9th, promptly got debunked right after they managed to rekindle my hope I would actually get this phone before 2011 was out.

Curse you Verizon, curse you and your torments

I have always been one for gadgets, I understand the hype machine that all of the companies subscribe to. Though as I am sure most who have been following this phone’s development would agree, this instance has seemingly “jumped the shark.” The worst part being the phone has actually been released, it is tangible, and has been in the hands of Android fans in Europe for months. Yet we still wait, with no word as to why, goodness knows Verizon isn’t saying anything. All we know is that there have been mysterious “delays” halting Verizon from getting this damned phone into my/our patiently awaiting hands.

Who is *really* to blame for the Galaxy Nexus delays?!

Conveniently enough, these mysterious delays have been followed up by some unsettlingrumors about the phone, and more importantly, how Verizon is screwing with it.

That’s why it’s so sad to see Verizon block people from using Google Wallet (Verizon Galaxy Nexus users won’t see the Google Wallet app in the Android Market). Especially on a reference phone like the Galaxy Nexus that should represent the purest Android experience. Plus it’s a dick move, presumably because Verizon will eventually be pimping its own phone payment service, ISIS (which Verizon is working on with AT&T and T-Mobile), over Google’s. ISIS sounds promising but it hasn’t launched yet and, well, when was the last time carriers did something good for you?

To me this stinks as one of the reasons for the delay, Big Red hard-balling Google into letting them disable the ability to use Google Wallet, then having to figure out how to do it while still allowing for ISIS to work in the who-the-hell-knows-when future. The Nexus line of phones is supposed to represent pure, untampered Android: Google’s vision for the OS and cutting edge hardware to show off how it’s meant to be experienced. But that’s not what we seem to be getting here.

…the Verizon version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will indeed have two bloatware apps. Both My Verizon Mobile and Backup Assistant will come preloaded…

Sure these are only two apps, and fairly utilitarian ones at that, but that doesn’t matter to me. I just want a clean slate! This leads me to my next theory that I have been toying with during this maelstrom of rumors: further delays are being caused by Verizon having a tough time with the new app disabling feature in Ice Cream Sandwich. Sure this phone will only have 2 Verizon apps on it, but will I be allowed to remove them? Will I even be allowed to disable them? If not on both accounts, then where does that leave us on future ICS handsets? Right back where we started, stuck with either having a bunch of apps we don’t want cluttering our devices or having to root the phone and go with a custom ROM. All just to make your phone actually yours!

Really I just hope above all else that this post was all for naught, Verizon finally pulls their collective heads out of their collective asses, and I can finally get a new phone!